1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to semiconductor devices, methods for forming semiconductor devices, and semiconductor devices used as non-volatile memory devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flash memory has been widely used as non-volatile memory for a wide range of electronic applications, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, MP3 players, USB devices, and the like. As flash memory is typically used for portable recording devices to store large amounts of information, a reduction in power consumption and cell sizes, along with increased operational speed, is very desirable.
Flash memory devices typically include a floating gate electrode on a tunneling oxide for storing an electrical charge and a fairly thick dielectric oxide surrounding to contain the charge. Nanocrystals have been suggested to replace the floating gate electrode on the tunneling oxide in order to reduce the needed thickness of the oxide surrounding. However, there remains a need for a method to obtain a more efficiently and uniform deposition of the nanocrystals on the tunneling oxide.